Coffee Shop Angel
by MikoSlave
Summary: YYH IY crossover. Pairing: Kag/Kur Kagome is always at the coffee shop, enjoying the view there, but then one day she meets Kurama. Prepare for the consequences of such a meeting. What? Kagome's father is home? And what's this about a tutor?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or YuYuHakusho. (I find this VERY obvious...)

**Author Note: Okay, this is my first story so I hope you'll be cooperative with me and kindly inform me of any mistakes I make! And this will be a Kag/Kur pairing. I will be open to any other ideas as long as it sticks to pairing and my rating. **

**Oh yeah- as a side note for the story I'd like everyone to know that in the story it might sound like Kagome is wearing a wig- but she isn't! Actually I was informed by one of my friends before I actually posted this that it seemed that way- I didn't notice anything. (sorry if I spoiled part of the story, but I wanted to clear up any misunderstandings of the story before it starting.)**

**Age:**

**Kagome:17**

**Kurama:17**

Chapter One: Meeting

A cold breeze blew against her, flinging her many black tresses of hair out of their previous neat state. Impatiently she pushed her hair down and settled into a bench facing the great ocean. She finally let her hair loose and the silky mass instantly flung some locks into her eyes. Pushing them aside the girl, Kagome, sipped on her quickly cooling coffee. After taking her first sip of coffee and she had her hair under moderate control she was completely calm, enjoying her surroundings. Kagome stared somewhat blankly out at the huge stretch of deep blue water in front of her.

Soon, though, her usual pastime of watching the scenery began to slowly bore her. Turning her head, trying her best to ignore the wind, she watched people go in and out of the coffee shop. However watching old geezers come and go wasn't exactly an interesting activity- that was until a young red headed teenage boy about her age approached the coffee shop. Her curiosity instantly was struck up as she watched the handsome boy go into the shop and waited to see if he would come back out. Her hopes were crushed after a while of waiting and she turned back to watch the old geezers again, figuring that the guy had come for his shift to work and had no time to talk to her. It was too bad, he had such interesting eyes and for just a second she had been captivated by their intensity.

Sighing Kagome realized he probably wasn't worth her time anyways. In her experience all the handsome guys she had met, including the demons she had met in the past, had been vain or a bastard in some fashion. Then again, how many handsome guys did you see walk into a coffee shop- around here it was rare. 'Maybe,' Kagome thought to herself dryly, 'it's because the only type of handsome boys we have around here are all bastards. A, simple yet explanatory hypothesis.' She took a sip of her now cold coffee glaring out at the setting sun not wanting to be reminded of InuYasha, the one who had betrayed her trust. Still the boy lingered in her mind like some sort of disease- but she had only seen him once. The sunset's beautiful array of colors had her briefly enchanted, but the moment was soon broken."You know, usually people prefer to hang out inside where it's warm."

Kagome jumped, surprised someone was able to approach her without her noticing. It was that green eyed boy from before. He was leaning to speak to her and had his hands on hers to prevent the coffee from sloshing out of the mug. Her face soon took on the shade of a bright red tomato when she felt his warm breath lightly blow against her sensitive ear. He stood up straight and drew his hands away, sitting next to her. Kagome glanced over at him, her gaze instantly caught by his emerald one. A slightly uncomfortable silence hung heavily in the air around them.

"So," He said, breaking the silence casually, "nice weather we're having today. A bit windy, though." Kagome looked away, breaking their eye contact and mumbled quietly, "Yeah... I noticed." He smiled at her before taking a sip of his own cup of coffee, seeming to have no trouble with his long hair getting messed up in the wind. He ignored her envious glare directed at his hair and spoke up again, "why are you out here?" Kagome put down her empty coffee mug and after a moment answered, "the scenery."

He looked out at the ending sunset and the ocean and his face seemed to soften slightly, "Ah, yes. The scenery." He sat silently with her, watching the end of the sunset. At the end a small satisfied smile lit up on her face. She turned to the boy who sat next to her and leaned back in the bench, and then began to speak, "I believe we haven't introduced ourselves yet. My name is Kagome Higurashi." The boy held out his hand and spoke, "It's nice to meet you, Miss. Higurashi. My name is Shuichi Minamo- I prefer Kurama, though." Kagome nodded, "Please don't call me that- friends call me Kagome." Kurama smiled, "Call me Kurama then." Kagome nodded.

Kurama looked over at Kagome, "you do realize," he said quietly, "that you see the scenery from inside, too. Though I must admit I rather like the change of being outside while drinking my coffee." Kagome laughed, surprising Kurama; the sound was music in his ears. "Well I like the experience of actually being outside- or else it doesn't feel real. So- are you normally here, drinking coffee? I haven't noticed you if you do." Kurama nodded, "observing often?" He asked with a smile, "I normally come in the mornings, but I decided to some in the afternoon today. I normally wouldn't drink coffee this late, but I've had a long day and I don't know if I'd make it home without a little caffeine right now."

Silently Kagome watched Kurama finish off his coffee before looking up into the darkening night. "So, why did you approach me?" Kagome asked curiously. Kurama shrugged, "I suppose it's because I noticed you watching me when I first came in. I thought you were another fan girl so I tried to ignore you- but when you didn't follow me in and I realized you were merely bored I suppose I got curious. Thus our little meeting." Kagome raised her eyebrows in disbelief, "fan girls? Wow- that bad huh?" Kurama shivered slightly, "yeah- at one point I was tempted to shave my head to keep them from stalking me but my mother stopped me."

They kept talking about their own personal stories for a while until Kagome said she had to leave. Kurama looked up at Kagome as she stood up , "Tomorrow night? Same time as today?" Kagome laughed lightly, "sure- Kurama. See you around!"

--

Kagome hurried home, she had talked with Kurama longer than she should have and now her mother was going to scold her for being home late. She ran through the cold streets as fast as she could without running into anyone. Kagome glared up at the shrine steps- loathing the hard work out she was put through just to get up to her house.

Kagome ran hurriedly up the hundreds of steps in record time- but totally exhausted. She sighed and looked up at the stars, collapsing at the top of the stairs. After a moment or so her breathing slowed and her skin turned a slightly less red than before.

"Nice to see you've calmed down." A voice from behind her. Kagome sat up quickly and looked around trying to spot who had just said that. 'Whats with people creeping up on me today?' Kagome wondered briefly before shrugging it off. Suddenly the 'stranger' stepped out of the shadows and Kagome's eyes widened considerably. There was only one thing she could say right now. "Father!"

--

Kurama watched Kagome go and sighed, she had truthfully caught his eye when he saw her sitting outside like that with the sunset setting off the scene. Yoko had recently been bugging him about finding a girl, but he hadn't actually thought he would be interested in someone. Sighing Kurama hoped that Koenma wouldn't send them on any more dirty missions that had anything to do with killing off hundreds of lowlife demons. He highly doubted it but he could always hope. He truly was interested in this new girl- Kagome.

Suddenly Koenma's walkie talkie that informed him of new missions began to beep- indicating a massage had come in. He listened to the message then walked off, slightly worried, the words from the message still ringing in his head. 'Hurry to the underworld- Yusuke and the others desperately need you right now!'

**Author Note: Hope you liked it! Review please and tell me what you think of it. I'm willing to answer any questions you might have. I might have also messed up on spelling of some of the characters. If I have then please tell me the real spelling and I'll try to fix it.  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own YuYuHakusho or InuYasha**

**Authors Note: I finally finished this chapter! (I'm REALLY sorry for the wait though). Thank you to all of you who reviewed last time! (Also thank you to all of you who are reading this story) **

Chapter 2: The Demon

Kagome knew with a certainty that this man was her father, there were no doubts when she saw his eyes and heard the way he spoke- it was all too familiar. Now she, her father and the rest of her family sat at the table with tea mugs set in front of them- all untouched and cold. The heavy silence in room unnerved Kagome greatly and she felt tempted to break the silence by slamming her fist onto the table. Bitting her lip firmly Kagome instead picked up her tea cup and took a sip- the first movement since Mrs. Higurashi insisted they all sit down. After placing down the cup Kagome looked at her father with slight contempt and smoothed down her slightly ruffled hair (from the run before). With that she went silent once more and turned her head over to her mother who seemed to take the hint. "So," Mrs. Higurashi spoke coldly, "why are you here after a four years disappearance? We all thought you were dead."

Mr. Higurashi cleared his throat a bit shakily and smiled at his wife, "Kagome and Souta have both grown, haven't they?" Kagome glared at him, "yeah- its been four stupid years, of course I've grown! Now answer Mama's question!" she growled out in a low, dangerous tone reflecting the spite in her eyes. The deadpan silence that settled in the air of the room was suffocating and after waiting for a moment or two Mrs. Higurashi got up with a sigh and murmured, "you know, I usually wouldn't judge so quickly, but you put my children and Grandfather through a lot trying to keep finances and we all missed you so much, too. So you had better had a good explanation- _now_." With that she turned to leave when his voice stopped her.

"It wasn't by choice, Kun-Loo. Right now I'm afraid I can't tell you what happened. Maybe later though, I can tell you of what _I_ experienced. What I suffered through that kept me from all of you." His voice was no longer warm and friendly but cold like an ice lash. Mrs. Higurashi growled and turned to him and snapped, "you think that would be an adequate explanation! Well?!" Mr. Higurahi gulped and stuttered, "N- no, of course not..." Mrs. Higurashi then continued her scolding. Kagome and Souta stared, terrified at their mother's actions. Grandfather merely sipped at his tea as though this was an everyday occurrence. Souta turned to Kagome and shivered, "Now I see where you got it from, Kagome..." Kagome blushed, "Souta!" Suddenly the scolding Mrs. Higurashi had been giving her husband came to an end. "I suppose that will do. You better tell me later though or you will find yourself wishing you died a baby." Mrs. Higurashi threatened. Mr.Higurashi grinned from ear to ear like a young lad being offered a chocolate bar. "Of course."

After that Kagome and Souta relaxed. Mrs. Higurashi then smiled at her daughter and asked, "Kagome why were you so late? I hear from your father that he found you exhausted at the top of the shrine steps." Kagome bit her lip and mentally chanted, 'oh crap, oh crap, oh crap! When did she hear THAT?!'

Kurama looked around at the clearing Koenma had said the fight would be, very displeased to find it empty. Shaking his head he bent down (making sure to stay alert of danger) to examine the ground for any signs of blood to see if he was tricked or if perhaps at one point Yusuke and the others had really been here. Finding nothing, no footprints, or anything he stood up and stretched his search of his teammates by extending the borders of his power. He found them almost too quickly. They were with Botan, just out of his normal detecting range. All of them seemed unharmed but anxious and were moving at a fast pace.

Frowning at the unusual occurrence of a trick on Koenma's part Kurama intended to get down to the bottom of this. He headed towards the group once again, this time traveling on the rooftops of the many buildings around him. Catching up to the group was no problem but finding them was a whole other aspect. He had been surprised to find such a large group of people this late at night. Quietly Kurama jumped down from the roof he had been on and blended in as well as he could with the crowd before following Yusuke's energy. Finally they stopped and Kurama reached them. Cutting off his energy he continued his search using his eyes exclusively. It was fairly easy from there on to spot Botan's unusual blue hair and Kuwabara's height.

They were sipping at bottles of old beer (with the exception of Hiei) and looking unusually depressed. Approaching them Kurama grabbed Yusuke's beer and dumped it into a it in a nearby recycle bin. He raised an eyebrow at Yusuke's desperate attempts to retrieve the bottle back. Leaning against the wall and snatched the bottles from Botan and Kuwabara's hands and throwing them in the recycle bin. Hiei blinked, surprised at Kurama's sudden appearance (and the fact that he didn't notice) before returning to the normal stoic expression. His eyes showed his satisfaction of having the sources of the awful smell gone.

"Hey!" Kuwabara slurred out, "K'rama! Why'd ya do tat? (Kurama! Why did you do that?)" Kurama raised his other eyebrow and glanced at Hiei with pity. Hiei shrugged and Kurama turned back to reply to Kuwabara's little question. "I have some questions for you. It would be better if you were somber when you answer them." Quickly pulling out three vials filled with murky looking liquid Kurama smiled at the drunk three, "drink this instead."

They all looked at the liquid suspiciously but all their previous common sense had disappeared with the alcohol. Botan gulped it down first in one big swig and held it out drunkly an said in a slurring voice, "More! M're!" Suddenly she keeled and began began puking into the closest trash can. Yusuke and Kuwabara weren't as lucky- they puked on their shoes. Hiei glanced at them with an extremely disgusted look before turning back to Kurama. "What do you want, Fox?" Kurama smiled, "Well, I got this call from Koenma..."

Half an hour later (at Kuwabara's house) Kurama had explained everything and Yusuke, Botan and Kuwabara were back to normal. Well- they did have some serious headaches but one of Kurama's herbal teas was taking care of most of that problem. Yusuke blinked after a while and spoke up finally, "Well... what do you want to know Kurama?" Kurama looked at Yusuke with completely emotionless eyes and spoke smoothly, "Why were you drunk?" Yusuke raised an eyebrow, "we drank some beer, Kurama. And here I thought you were smart-" Kurama glared a little and Yusuke gulped and answered the question, "we were upset we had missed this concert with this really great musician. Botan thought she had to keep us disciplined so she came with us." Kurama sighed and leaned back into the chair back before glancing over a Hiei who sat on the windowsill. "Sooo..." Kurama drawled, "why was Hiei with you?" Hiei blushed and answered before Yusuke or the others could. "They dragged me there." Yusuke laughed ignoring Hiei's death glare and answered, "we told him Yukina was coming and he believed us!" Yusuke froze when he felt cold steel against his throat and sealed his lips.

Kurama grinned a little and continued his questioning until he came to conclusion of what had happened. Yusuke had gotten lost and soon after getting drunk (they had been drinking while walking) had called Koenma telling him he needed someone smart like Kurama to help out. Yusuke, being drunk and Hiei, the only somber person, not being able to read a human map, had told Koenma some random street name on the map. Koenma had taken Yusuke's odd way of talking as an emergency and had called Kurama. Before the group had gone to find the concert they were given an assignment to kill an 'A' class demon that had somehow mysteriously pasted through the barrier. Apparently they had gotten rid of it with no problems, but Koenma connected the 'emergency' with the assignment he had given Yusuke and the others and so a huge misunderstanding was created.

Something didn't seem right about all of this, though. An 'A' class demon had passed through the barrier- how? They made it seem as if this demon was another low class though, so none of it added up. 'A' class demons weren't that easy to kill- they tended to be fairly stubborn so at least put up a decent fight. Narrowing his eyes Kurama tried to sense any strong demon's presence and couldn't find any- not even the fading presence of a strong demon was present anywhere. Frowning Kurama ran through his thoughts again and recalled when he had gone to the underworld, the description Koenma had told him going through his head again.

_"A huge one this time- at least thirteen feet tall and around 500 pounds... abilities are not really well known. It's funny- the file of this demon is practically blank. All it says is 'rarely found' and sometimes believed to be dead. It has no family or acquaintances so there isn't any way to know how the demon got through." _That was when it became apparent to Kurama what had happened. Standing up abruptly he asked Yusuke one last question, "Did you see it actually die?" Yusuke shrugged, looking a little surprised, "Come to think of it- no. It just disappeared after I severely injured it." Kurama sighed and turned to him, "Do you have any... samples of him? For example- blood, fur..." Yusuke grimaced, "Oh, yeah. Plenty of blood on my clothes... here I'll go get them. I haven't cleaned them yet."

After receiving the bloody clothing Kurama scrunched up his nose in disgust and soon Hiei was gone from the room- it seemed Hiei didn't partially like the smell. Kurama turned to Botan who nodded in understanding and pulled out some underworld equipment and after putting some of the demon's blood in it some device. Soon a map came up on a the device's screen with a little moving red dot on it- representing where the demon was. Yusuke groaned, "not another map..." Kuwabara hit him over the head and shouted at him, "It's your fault we got lost Yusuke! You had the map!" Yusuke growled back at Kuwabara, "oh, yeah? I'll show you-!" Kurama stopped the fight by stepping between them speaking in a overly serious voice. "The demon is hungry. There is a wonderful supply of human meat in the city, don't you think? The demon sure does. It approaches more and more populated areas and has already killed seventeen humans- six were children." Botan's eye's widened, "the demon lives? But-!" Kurama shook his head and pointed to the device in his hand and the dot that was moving quite quickly on the map. "It approaches the park that Keiko often goes to. Shall we leave now... Hiei? Yusuke? Kuwabara?"

Hiei suddenly appeared back in the room and nodded. They set off like that... the only problem was that the dot liked to disappear then show up in a totally different area in the city. Kurama grumbled to himself in his mind, 'well, now we have at least two abilities of the demon- covering up it's aura and transportation.' Hiei would have laughed at Kurama's thoughts if he wasn't so worried about the others hearing him. This was going to be a long night.

(NEXT MORNING)

Kagome had complained to her mother all night about this but she hadn't let up, not even one bit. Kagome shivered slightly recalling her words. _This is something everyone can do and enjoy! Kagome I will not change my plans! And after so many years of your father being gone, too! You used to love doing this with the family! _Kagome groaned and tried to stay as far back from her family as possible, pretending not to know them and tried to ignore all the curious stares they were receiving. That, however, was harder than it seemed since they were constantly calling her to hurry up. They were window shopping. Window shopping was great... that is when you weren't standing with a group of people fascinated with painting of horror scenes and fake heads of demons. Her grandfather was overly enthusiastic about the trip, pointing out all gruesome things they ran into and telling some story about its history. Ugh... if only she could escape. She didn't remember her father liking this sort of stuff.

"Kagome!" Souta shouted over at her, "look at this hand of an instinct monkey that lived like three hundred years ago! It was mummified by some weird tribe..." Kagome sighed and walked up to Souta, quite ready to drag him away from this section of shops. Her family didn't even seem to notice that they were coming closer and closer to the worse parts of town. That was when she sensed it though- the demon. She had rarely sensed such a powerful demon in the past- not to mention in her time. Frowning when she felt it coming closer she hurried up to her mother and whispered urgently in her ear, "There's some dangerous demon on the loose- I must go." Her mother looked down at her daughter and finally nodded in understanding. "Of course Kagome. I can't stop you, can I." It was a statement.

Kagome smiled at her and was off like a bullet into the night street. Everyone in her family paused in their window shopping and watched her go in confusion. Mr. Higurashi frowned and turned to his wife, "what happened?" She smiled at him, "she had something important to take care of." He turned to stare at the place he had last seen his daughter before turning back to Mrs. Higurashi, "you must really trust her to just let her go off like that." He paused and looked a little thoughtful before continuing, "Come to think of it; how are Kagome's grades doing?" Everyone except a confused Mr. Higurashi froze and turned a little pale. Mrs. Higurashi shared glances with Grandfather and Souta before answering, "Um, well about that..."

Kagome had forgotten how great it felt to run like this, through the crisp night air in chase of prey. Grinning from ear to ear she briefly ignored the power that radiated from the demon and pretended she was back in the feudal era, on InuYasha's back... Her eyes widened when she realized who she was thinking of and tripped on the hard cement sidewalk. There went that moment.

Standing up slowly she wiped off some dirt that had gotten on her pants and began running again, making her way through the early morning traffic. Looking around at her surroundings she grew a little uneasy, she was now in the 'bad' part of the city. The roads were turning into dark alleyways and the people were beginning to look suspiciously like thugs and drug dealers.

Despite her odd upbringing of being used to more gruesome things than most girls she knew the basic rules of safety when it came to this sort of situation. In the back of her mind -the part that respected these rules- screamed at her to turn back and NOT take any of the alleyways. Of course her first priority was the demon. She could handle most attacks from a human; unless that counted guns. She was very bad with guns. So with that she jumped into one of the alleyways heading towards the demon once again.

Yusuke gasped for breath on one of the building roofs along with Kuwabara. Botan watched with worry on her flying oar and Kurama and Hiei merely paused to give their legs a break- seeing as their stamina was a lot better than the other two. Kuwabara wiped some sweat off his forehead and asked Kurama, "when will that demon stop doing that weird jumpy thing?" Kurama blinked, "Transportation, you mean?" Kuwabara nodded and looked down at the map Kurama still held (the one that shows where the demon is) and asked again, "you got any ideas Kurama? We've been chasing this thing all night!" Kurama looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding, "yes... maybe. I'll need to make sure my plan will work though, so we'll have to keep chasing it for a while more." Yusuke groaned, "Lovely... ah! I had a date with Keiko this morning! She's gonna kill me!" Kurama chuckled and they began their chase once again.

**Authors Note: Okay, I'm done with this chapter! I hope you liked it and please remember to review. Once again I'm sorry for the long wait. By the way I wasn't really sure what Mrs. Higurashi's first name was so I used one that I'd seen a couple times (and I'm not sure if I spelled it right either) so I'd appreciate it if you could tell me what you think her name is.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or YuYu Hakusho. **

**Author Note: I'm really sorry this took so long (for a second time --). If you looked in my profile it told you why it was taking me so long to update (it took practically a whole month). I was having trouble with this chapter for some reason. I think I rewrote it at least three times. Anyhow please excuse my tardiness and enjoy this chapter!**

Chapter 3: End of Demon

Mr. Higurashi stood looking down at the table, a look of grim seriousness clouded over his face. The rest of the family (besides Kagome who is gone) sat silently at the side wondering if everything would turn out okay for their poor unsuspecting family member as Mr. Higurashi looked over the report cards once more. Finally he set them down with a furious expression on his face. "She has an F in math, and D's in everything else besides history- which she has a B in." He turned to look at Kun-Loon with a sad expression on his face, "why do you allow her so much freedom with these grades, Kun-Loon?" Mrs. Higurashi gulped and traded looks with Grandfather, but before she could answer he had continued. "No- never mind. I'm sure there is a good reason- but her grades MUST improve. I can only come up with one solution. She might not like it, but we no longer have a choice in this matter." He paused dramatically before continuing, " she requires a tutor."

Silence fell over the room, Souta was the first to break it. "Kagome's gonna HATE that. Awesome!" They could no longer hold it back anymore, Mrs. Higurashi and Grandfather burst into laughter. "Ah, yes, she will Souta! Just what she needs, too! Wonder idea dear!" Mrs. Higurashi complimented her dumbfounded husband. Mr. Higurashi shook his head in shock, 'what a strange family I have... I thought they would take this more seriously...'

Kagome shivered slightly and looked up into the light blue sky slightly worried something bad had happened before turning her mind back to the task at hand- catching up to the demon. Turning into another dark alleyway Kagome dodged some garbage cans that stood so innocently in her way. She growled to herself- it seemed no matter where she went the demon was just getting farther away. Something wasn't right- it was the same feeling that one gets when they're going around in circles, never getting anywhere without realizing it- except slightly different. It was as though the opposite was happening- she was moving farther and farther than she intended- like the demon was pushing her away.

Turning another corner she found herself in another alley way- but it seemed different than the ones she had been in before. It no longer felt as though she was in danger, but somewhere safe, some place she recognized. Slowly she moved out of the alleyway onto a street and stared around in shock- it was the street she regularly took to go to a park nearby her house. Yet only a moment ago she had been in the depths of the 'bad' part of the city.

'Oh no...' Kagome thought. 'The last time something like this happened was when I was teleported... ' She let the thought trail off and she finally figured out what had happened. "I was teleported here- by the demon... that's the only explanation." Gulping Kagome looked back at where she had ran from when she had 'turned the corner' (okay to make this clear just as Kagome turned a corner into what would be an alleyway in the bad part of town she was teleported here in an alleyway she knew in the good part of town) and froze. 'Add to that explanation I had- the demon decided to come with me...' Kagome thought silently to herself while looking up at the huge bulk of flesh that was consumed in evil energy and presumed to be the demon. Shaking her head slowly Kagome prepared herself for an attack, ready to dodge at any moment.

She waited and waited. Finally she looked up at the demon. Wait a moment- huge bulking demon in a small tight alleyway equals... "pfft..." Kagome covered her mouth, trying not to laugh- it didn't work. Soon she was laughing herself sick, rolling on the ground repeating the same thing over and over again, "he's STUCK! The demon's stuck!"

Suddenly though she found herself rolling in sand instead of cement and a sense of foreboding filled her when she looked up at the demon. "Oops," Kagome muttered, "I think I made him angry." Glancing around at her surroundings Kagome blinked- she was on the beach, but no one was here and she was surprisingly close to a cliff wall. She knew this beach well- she had lived here ever since she was three, so it didn't take long to figure out that they had landed in one of the 'less visited areas' of the beach. Still it was odd for no one to be in the areas around. She shrugged it off figuring there was probably some explanation. Frowning she tried to remember the reason it was recommended not to come to this section of the beach. Slowly she envisioned a article she had read of the different parts of the beach and soon remembered the part that mentioned the part she now stood in.

_This part of the beach is known for its danger of falling rocks from the cliff side, drowning from high tide (due to no easy way to escape the small stretch of sand), and deaths from falling on the sharp surrounding rocks on this particular stretch. It is HIGHLY recommended one does not approach this area. Because of the many drownings here though, a staircase was built nearby the section of beach. _

Kagome groaned; falling rocks, drowning due to no escape from surrounding cliff side, and deathly sharp rocks sounded just WONDERFUL (sarcasm if you haven't figured that out by now ). Oh yeah- that pretty much described the section of beach she was on. Looking quickly around once more she was relieved to see the stairs she remembered mentioned in the article. At least she would still have some way out of this... maybe.

The sound of shuffling feet made everyone sigh and turn to their fidgeting teammate, Kuwabara. "Um..." He voiced after a moment and everyone sighed again as Kuwabara continued, "Why are we here again?" Exasperated, Botan answered, "this is the sixth time you've asked Kuwabara! The answer's going to stay the same. We're here because Kurama figured out the demon will appear here." Kuwabara shrugged, "Look, I know. It's just that he hasn't explained to us why waiting here for a whole hour is better than traveling around the city." This time Yusuke spoke up, "Did you LIKE running from one side of the city to the other?" Kuwabara glared at Yusuke, "of course not. But this is BORING." Yusuke looked thoughtful for a second, "True," he said as everyone turned to look at Kurama. Yusuke continued, "Isn't the demon stuffing itself full of humans as we just sit here, waiting for it?"

Kurama looked over at Yusuke and smiled, "It's quite simple really. Why the demon was teleported all over the city, that is. It was _protecting_ something." Blinking Yusuke growled, "Okay, now what does that have to do with anything?" Everyone waited eagerly for Kurama's answer.

"The demon attacked people who it thought might harm the thing it was protecting. It took a while but I figured out whatever the demon is protecting is here, or at least close by. Right now the demon feels threatened so it hasn't attacked anyone of recent. No one is at the beach right now because police closed the area due to a large number of 'mysterious disappearances'. Of course those gone are most likely dead; killed by the thing the demon is protecting. That was why a large number of children were killed. Soon the demon will come here to protect the thing that it wishes to protect.

Hiei snorted, "you know what the thing it is protecting, don't you, fox?" Kurama nodded, "I'm getting there Hiei. I soon realized that the barrier would be able to detect the demon's aura and be able to repel it if it were and A class or higher, no matter how the demon can erase it's presence. The barrier is the strongest creation of the Spirit world. Therefor why would one of the 7 items be able to detect it and the barrier not. That is, unless the barrier has received an incredible amount of damage; which it hasn't as far a I know. So the demon we were chasing was not a 'A' class demon but perhaps a low 'C' class demon. It appears there is a much stronger demon around here, perhaps a high 'B' class was using the 'C' class's power to create the power of a 'A' class. That precious thing the 'C' class demon is protecting is the 'B' class demon. (**A/N: I know that this was just a lot of talk explaining the whole situation and is kind of boring but please bare with it.**)

Everyone stared at Kurama and finally Botan spoke, "you mean the demon we were chasing was a DECOY?!" Kurama nodded, "of a sort. The 'B' class demon still needs the other demon's power. I do suspect the 'B' class demon did most of the killings." Kuwabara growled and cracked his knuckles, "Sure, count me in. But WHY would the demon come out? It's been hiding the whole time. Why would it come out now? To meet it's death with a big smile and a sign pointing at it's heart saying, 'strike here'?" Kurama laughed and shook his head, "no Kuwabara- the demon will no longer be able to hide when the 'C' class demon dies."

Hiei who had been sitting in the back snorted, "Where is the demon now, Fox?" Kurama glanced down at the map, "The 'B' class demon? I don't know. However if you're talking about the 'C' class demon..." he paused and put down the spirit world device. "It's here."

Yusuke jumped up at that and stretched, "Awesome! I had just about had it with the whole waiting thing. Let's get going!" Kuwabara frowned, "um, Yusuke that might be a bad idea." Yusuke turned on him and growled looking quite ready to fight Kuwabara. Kurama spoke first though, "No, Yusuke. Kuwabara is right. Someone with a high energy level is already taking care of the demon. We should observe."

Kagome turned to face the demon and 'eeped' before barely dodging a huge metal club that past only inches from her face. Dodging repeatedly, she sized up the demon. For it's size it was incredibly swift, but then considering the power in the demon's aura it's attacks and approaches were pathetic. Recalling her many lessons with 'the group' she thought of Sango's torturous 'classes' as she jumped high into the air, intending to kick the demon into the many surrounding sharp rocks. She knew well that such an experience of having many sharp objects jabbed into one, such as she was about to do, would at least be extremely painful, if not deathly fatal.

That plan, however, flew out the window when the demon disappeared and reappeared behind her. The demon swung its club at her helpless falling form. Kagome knew it was pretty much impossible to dodge midair unless there was a solid surface nearby to push off of. The only close enough solid surface that could help her dodge the club was the club itself.

Shrugging at herself mentally she thought briefly, 'ah, what the heck; I grew up taking chances!' With that she grabbed the club and held on for just a moment before pushing off and flinging herself into the cliff wall just as the club smashed into the ground. Kagome closed her eyes as an unbelievable amount of sand flew everywhere. When she finally opened her eyes she saw the demon growling while trying to retrieve the club which was undoubtedly DEEP into the sand (more or less stuck). Not wasting a second Kagome pushed off the cliff wall (with her hands glowing with her miko (priestess) energy) and pushed the demon in the back of the knees. The demon stumbled then fell straight on the sharp rocks, blood gushing out of it's wounds. The screams it emitted were deafening as it thrashed around attempting to get up. After a short session of convulsions the demon died leaving only it's carcass and bloody ocean water.

Gazing up into the sky Kagome sighed in relief when she saw the sun beginning its descent down- the sunset would help cover up the pink color of the water. The incoming tide should at least wash away most of the carcass until she could clean up after herself by dumping off the remains at a more private area. Wait- sunset. Kurama! The tide would make it harder to leave this section of the beach considering that the only way to leave the sandy section were some stairs carved into the cliff face ten or so feet away from where she stood now- those ten feet covered in water. Frowning she looked down at herself and the blood that cover her and winced. 'I suppose a little bath right now wouldn't hurt.' All of her clothes were stained red and her arms had almost none of her normal tan skin showing anymore- just red blood. She could imagine that her face and hair weren't fairing much better.

Preparing herself for the cold she quickly plunged her legs into the freezing water and ignored as they went numb and shuttered briefly as a wave soaked her shoulders down. Stumbling over some rocks she tripped and fell flat on her face under the water. Slowly standing back up muttering curses through her numb lips she took a couple more steps and finally reached the stairs. Lifting her legs she began her climb to safety. Half way up the steps she looked back at the sun and seeing in already a good measure down she bolted up the rest of the stairs. With that she ran and ran, never minding her sore feet or soaked clothes.

Everyone stared down as the demon fell and died. Looking down at what little they could see of the fighter Yusuke growled, "Hey! He took my fight! We chase that thing around all night and..." Ignoring Yusuke's ranting Kurama examined as best as he could the blood splattered long haired figure. Just as the figure turned enough so he could see his face Botan squealed with worry. Turning quickly to see if anything was wrong Botan spoke with a worried voice, "oh, no! The tide! He'll drown!" Kurama turned back to look at the figure but his head was once again to him as he walked into the deep tide water... and then disappeared. Kurama blinked once, then twice; the water was not deep enough for him to be under the water and yet-

His thoughts were broken when Hiei spoke to him through the jagan.

**Fox, stop daydreaming and pay attention to your surroundings.**

-Huh?-

Hiei sighed through the link. **If you were paying attention you would have realized that I'd gone off and killed the 'B' class demon. **

-Oh. I see.- Kurama looked out at the sunset and secretly cursed himself. -I'll let these guys clean up the demon. I have an appointment right now that I am late to.-

**Whatever Fox.**

With that the link broke and Kurama turned to Botan, "be sure they don't slack off when cleaning up, okay?" Botan blinked, "uh... okay." Nodding to Yusuke and Kuwabara he jumped into the night, headed home to clean himself up. A good couple of minutes later Yusuke figured out what Kurama had just done and he roared, "KURAMA! YOU CHEATER! GET BACK HERE!" Kurama merely smiled as he stepped into his room.

She ran through the city and up the shrine steps not unlike the night before. This time however she did not collapse but instead tiptoed into the shrine as quietly as possible. Finally reaching her room Kagome rushed out of her gritty and soaked clothes and reached at a random set of clean jeans and a shirt. Then she entered her bathroom and taking a wet rag and a powerful concealing smelling soap that she used now and again in Feudal era due to some of her group's sensitive noses. Now she used it to just hide the smell of blood that covered her. Finally getting her hair and body moderately clean she put on her clean clothes on and hurried out, not bothering to even throw her dirty clothes in the wash. If she left NOW with no interruptions then she might just make it one time. Just as she reached the very bottom of the stairs however she stopped quite abruptly when her father's voice filled her ears. He had somehow sneaked up on her again.

"I heard about your grades. Why do you roam around so freely with grades like this? You should be studying." Kagome wheeled around to face her father and glared at him, she wasn't exactly in a great mood right now, "okay! Who spilled the beans?" He raised an eyebrow, "that's not important. What is important is-" Kagome cut him off when she glanced down at her watch and practically screamed. "Oh, snap! I'm gonna be late! Sorry daddy! Gotta go!" He rolled his eyes as she ran out the door and followed her. "To WHERE?!" He asked, exasperation filling his voice.

Kagome glanced back at him and grinned before answering, "I'm meeting someone!" With that she was off once more down the many shrine steps. He stood there for a moment a little shocked his daughter would just run off on him. Finding his voice again he muttered to himself, "And I'll bet anything it's with a boy, too..."

Kagome gasped for breath in front of the coffee shop looking at the empty bench as disappointment welled up inside her. Going inside the closing coffee shop she ordered a to-go coffee and walked back outside to sit on the bench. Blinking a couple times to get used to the darker lighting she stared up at the dark figure sipping at a to-go coffee mug. Once more their eyes clashed and Kagome blushed, "I'm so sor-" He cut her off by shaking his head, "What are you talking about? You're just on time." He grinned at her as she gaped and mouthed a little 'huh'. "I'm afraid I wasn't very specific last time. I meant for us to meet in time to watch the sunset again but I did say 'same time' which was at the end of our time together. It's only natural for you to think it was the ending time instead of the beginning... maybe I should be more clear this time?" Kagome's blue eyes widened as he looked up; his eyes were calm and not mocking as she had feared they would be. "Will you meet me tomorrow at the begging of the sunset?" Kagome laughed, "Of course!"

After they sat down and Kagome had sipped down a good eighth of her coffee Kagome glanced at Kurama, an evil twinkle residing in her eyes. "So Kurama... I noticed that you have a to-go coffee. When I came here, though it was barely steaming... I wonder what that was about?" He turned to meet her curious eyes and a small smile graced his features, "what makes you think that I didn't just go in and get a new cup of coffee and wait for it to cool down before drinking it?" Kagome slowly blinked once then answered, "Nothing." A mischievous grin lit her face, "but last time you drank it right away even though it was still steaming hot... also you come up with an excuse for me being late and blaming yourself for something that about the way you worded the request of when to meet here..." She blinked innocently and continued," even though you undoubtedly worded it correctly..."

His sharp eyes seemed to flash as he spoke, though humor clouded his voice "I might just be that I'm a nice guy, Kagome." Kagome shrugged, "oh... is that so?" He took a sip of his coffee then spoke, "how about you just admit to yourself you know why I'm doing this. I know that you know." She smiled, "you were late too... now weren't you?" Kurama blinked and shrugged, "oh, I don't know milady. You'll just have to guess for the rest of your life..." She laughed at the mocking formal tone and finally found her voice to speak, "why don't you just admit it to yourself, Kurama?" He shrugged, and Kagome spoke for him, "I don't suppose you'll answer that, huh?" Kurama grinned at her, "I will tell you that my mother calls it male pride." Both of their laughs range through the night air as they began to talk to one another just like the night before.

Not very far away Mr. Higurashi set down the phone with a sigh of relief; he'd found a willing tutor. Looking up at the clock he frowned and looked back out into the dark sky. "It's nearly 9:45. Where is that girl?!" With that he took out a chair in front of the shrine and sat down, preparing for a long wait.

Their conversation finally lapsed into a comfortable silence. Kurama was looking down at his long empty cup of coffee while Kagome gazed up at the stars. Finally Kurama broke the moment, whispering as if afraid to speak to loudly, "Kagome. We should probably be going." Kagome blinked and looked down at her watch and (using one of InuYasha's colorful words) cursed under her breath. Kurama raised an eyebrow and she blushed, flustered, "uh, sorry?" He smiled, "I'll admit it's been a while since I've heard THAT one." Kagome looked down a her shoes sheepishly and he chuckled and stood, offering his hand. "It seems we're in a rush to get home?" Kagome took his hand and nodded. He smiled and helped her up before releasing her. "Then may I escort you home?" Kagome smiled back at him before responding, "yes, I wouldn't mind that. But..." He gestured for her to continue, "I'm going to have to run home." He bowed, "no problem, milady. I expertise in speed. Perhaps I will be of some assistance?" He said it so formally it made her giggle. She could do no more than nod. "Wonderful." He said, "Now, we waste time. Where is your place?"

Kagome sobered quickly, "the Sunset Shrine. Do you know where that is?" He simply held out his hand. Placing hers in his carefully she was surprised when it was tugged and he dragged her along side her, running. If it weren't for the fact that her lungs were bursting for air she would have marveled at the beautiful picture he made. That and just over the fact that he could move so fast. He soon noticed her exhaustion and paused to pick her up. Her little gasp of surprise went unnoticed as they sped along once more, Soon she relaxed into his hold and she leaned into his chest. All too soon he slowed to a stop at the top of the shrine steps. His voice was loud in her ears when he whispered, "We're here, Kagome. I'm going to put you down now."

Kagome opened her eyes when she felt her feet contact the floor and for the first moment that she stood with out support she struggled to balance. When she turned to thank Kurama he was already going down the steps and when she turned around there sat her father. He just sat there, eyes narrowed and a scowl engraved on his face. Kagome gulped and hoped he hadn't noticed Kurama. What she didn't know was that it was too late; their eyes had met at the top of the steps and a dangerous threat was already shared between them (or more a threat by her father given to Kurama). _Don't you dare hurt her._

**Author Note: Okay, I know the fighting scene was probably bad- I'm not especially good at writing them... Also in the previous chapter I used the word 'transportation' instead of 'teleportation'. I also used teleported as sort of a pretense of transportation even though I don't know if it's even a word... ;; I'm sure that was confusing. Sorry about that! Please review and tell me what you think!  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own YuYuHakusho or InuYasha. **

**A/N: I updated a little later than I had planned but I had to edit it before posting it. I probably missed a couple things because I was going through it a little faster than normal so please try to ignore any grammar or spelling errors I might have missed. **

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed last time! **

Chapter 4: The tutor.

The alarm clock went off, soon followed by a thumping sound and incoherent grumbling. Slowly Kagome got up from her unexpected meeting with the floor while slowly grasping around to find her alarm clock. After a moment or two of unsuccessful blind searching Kagome finally felt the edge of the alarm clock and pressed many random buttons until it turned off. Then looking down at the time on the clock  
Kagome jumped up with horror. How could she have forgotten to change the time from weekend waking up time to school day waking up time? Running to her closest and bringing out her uniform she flung open the bathroom door. Stripping out of her pajamas Kagome jumped into the shower. After taking her shower (and dressing) she hurried downstairs.

Rushing into the kitchen Kagome past her mother hurriedly shouting something about being late before stopping abruptly. The smell of breakfast had reached her nose as it was being put down on the table. Souta, Grandfather, and Mr. Higurashi stared at her as she slowly turned around with a dangerous glint in her eyes. Her mother merely smiled as Kagome slowly approached the food laid out in her place and plopping down.

Wondering to herself vaguely why she wasn't skipping breakfast Kagome had a small flashback to the night before.

_Kagome looked up at her father with worry as he stood up. "Father? Something the matter?" He glanced down at her and his eyes narrowed, "why, yes. You're late home." Before Kagome could open her mouth to explain however he cut her off, "no Kagome. We'll talk about this tomorrow." Slightly disgruntled Kagome followed her father inside the house. Soon however she veered towards the kitchen only for him to hold her in place._

_"Where are you going Kagome?" He asked dryly. Shrugging out of his grasp she turned to face him, a scowl on her face. "I haven't eaten since breakfast! I'm hungry! Where do think I'm going?" She had snapped at him, she knew. But she was too darn hungry to care. Shaking his head he pointed up to her bedroom, "No, I believe you will wait until morning. Go to bed Kagome." When she just glared at him he added, "just think of it as being grounded." Growling her fury she stomped up to her bedroom. _

Oh, yes. That was why she was so hungry.

"Thank you for the meal." They all said in unison before Kagome picked up her bowl of rice and shoved it all down in seconds. "Refill please." She managed to mumble, holing out her bowl while stuffing in some of her other breakfast (egg, fish, I don't know. Use your imagination.) By the time the time the second bowl of rice was handed back to her all the other food was gone.

Midway through her third bowl though Mr. Higurashi spoke up, "Kagome, who exactly did you meet last night?" Kagome paused in eating, swallowed and looked up before answering. "His name is Kurama," she pause to eat more rice before continuing, "we met at the coffee shop." Souta piped in then as Kagome shoved more rice into her mouth, "So that means Kagome went on a DATE-" Kagome spit out her half chewed mouthful of rice onto Souta (who, oh so conveniently sat across from her) who continued his sentence with a disgusted look, "-with someone besides Hojo." Mr. Higurashi raised an eyebrow as his daughter began coffing due to some of the partly swallowed rice and his son just sat there wiping off the rice with a napkin like it was an everyday occurrence.

"There's another one?" His voice showed his displeasure. "Why didn't I hear of this right away?" Kagome shrugged, "It's not that important." She grinned at everyone's disbelieving looks and continued, "Let me clarify. I went on a date or two with Hojo because my friends forced me to; I didn't have a choice." Souta grinned over at her, "What about your date with that Kurama?" Kagome leaned over the table to smack Souta over the head as siblings often do but was stopped by her mother's warning glare. "I did NOT go on a date with Kurama! Well... maybe I did." She whispered the last part just low enough so only her mother (who sat next to her) could hear. Souta leaned back with a smirk, "but you didn't say anything insulting about him or say -ahem-" He began to speak in a higher pitched voice in an attempt to mimic her voice, "he's just a _friend_." His voice returned to normal as Kagome's face turned a slight pink, "-so you MUST at least be interested." Her face turned a darker pink then steadily turned a bright red as the truth of Souta's words sunk in.

"Well then," Mr. Higurashi's stiff voice spoke, "it seems as though I'll have a long talk with him." Kagome's face turned the color of a ripe tomato as she managed to stutter, "um... no, I-I don't think that's a good idea." Her mother smiled, "yes dear," she said, addressing Mr. Higurashi, "Kagome just met the poor boy. Don't chase him off quite yet. At least not until I've got a picture of their first kiss. And he was so handsome I can't blame my daughter for wanting to-" she was cut off by a VERY red Kagome, "Mother! Wait... how did you know he was handsome?" Mrs. Higurashi sighed, and ignored the Kagome's question, "oh, dear. I'm sorry Kagome. You haven't even admitted your feeling yet, I shouldn't be thinking of wedding plans..." Shaking her head Kagome went back to finishing her third bowl of rice.

During the brief silence however Mr. Higurashi recalled his late call last night and decided to change topics. "So, Kagome..." Kagome glanced up at him as he spoke, "your grades..." Kagome gulped, she really didn't want to talk about her grades but she knew she wouldn't be able to avoid it forever. Continuing Mr. Higurashi locked eyes with Kagome, grabbing his daughter's full attention on the subject, "After looking over your grades I have decided that you require- something that I had hoped neither of my children would ever need, might I add- a tutor." He and the rest of the family sat there tensely, waiting for her reaction. Kagome gaped at him for a second, "A... _tutor?_" Mr. Higurashi nodded as Souta laughed silently at his sister's misfortune off to the side.

"A tutor..." She said it slowly, her incredulous voice sounding suspiciously similar to someone debating whether they should eat a snail or slug first. Her next sentence seemed to close that debating tone, "How awful." Amusement twinkled in her eyes as she said it though, as if she was complying in some secret joke. Everyone there stared at her in confusion and curiosity. This... was not exactly how they had thought it would turn out. They had all prepared for the practically inevitable: screaming and arguing. Instead she just sat there slowly gathering her dishes to be put in the sink. Finally she spoke again, "I'll admit I kind of suspected something like this, just less severe." Suddenly her voice lost all its cool composure it had before as she stood up, anger clouding her expression, "Couldn't you have at LEAST made me do a study group before making me go to some random tutor!" Everyone in the room stared up at her in shock.

At last Mr. Higurashi spoke, "I've made my decision, Kagome. No complaints. You're to come home immediately after school and I'll take you to her place. Your tutoring will be from 4:30 to 6:00 pm." Kagome blinked, "wait... her?" He nodded dryly, "never heard of a female tutor before?" Kagome blushed and sat back down, "uh, yes. It's just I thought for some reason it would be a male." Mr. Higurashi just nodded and continued, "You will have your tutoring on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Depending on how you improve we can change the amount of days you go for tutoring."

Kagome pouted and suddenly something he just said struck her like a little lightning bolt, "Wait, 6:00? But the sunset starts at 5:50 normally! I won't be able to meet Kurama on time!" Mr. Higurashi's eyes widened, "you have ANOTHER date with him?" Kagome blinked, "uhh..." searching desperately for an escape route Kagome realized with a start school had started five minutes ago. "AH! I'm late! I'm late!" She scrambled up and snatched her books before clumsily slipping into her shoes and with that she left in a dead run. '_Today isn't turning out to be a very good day...'_ Was her last thought before disappearing from her family's sight.

Yusuke glanced over once at Kieko as she rummaged through her backpack wondering once more why he had let her drag him out to this park during lunch break when he could be fighting Kuwabara. Kieko finally found what she was looking for and with a triumph grin she pulled out two boxed lunches and handed one to Yusuke. "I made it for you this morning! It took me forever to get the fish and cabbage because I had to go out and buy some this morning 'cause we were out..." Yusuke tuned out her rambling and opened it quickly.

Lifting up the lid he looked down at the contents of his lunch. It had normal everyday dishes in it but for some reason he felt an unexplainable danger coming from the food. Finally he spotted something unusual. The slightly overcooked fish in his lunch box was was _glowing._ Picking it up and staring at it he looked over at Kieko, "um, did you poison the fish?" Kieko turned red with what was most likely anger, "Why would I poison my cooking? Are you trying to tell me that you don't like my cooking..." The last sentence carried an obvious threat behind it. Gulping Yusuke looked down at the fish once more and blinked. It had stopped glowing... how strange. Kieko seemed to find it much less interesting however as glared at him, "well?" Glancing over at her he grinned, "nope, it's fine." With that he began eating.

AFTER SCHOOL

She had always known there was a forest bordering the edge of the Sunset Shrine but she had only been in it once before. It had been in third grade, she had been amazed by all the trees and growth around her she wasn't even afraid when she began to get lost. She had wandered around for a good half hour after stepping off the trail when she found the edge of the forest again and ran back to the shrine. She had been excited to tell her family of her little adventure. Back then though, she hadn't noticed all the many times one would have to take a route twice as long than planned because of impassably thickly grown bushes or the many tree roots that would just be waiting to trip her. Nor had she noticed all the scratches one got as they tried to squeeze past two blooming rose bushes -I mean rose bushes! Who plants rose bushes out in the middle of a forest?- or sore feet one gets while trying to ignore all the pebbles and leaves they get in their shoes. However, now she had the joy of actually noticing all these things.

Kagome groaned and stopped walking to lean down and rub her sore legs once more before looking ahead to her father who waited impatiently a good distance ahead of her. Beginning to walk again after her father she tried to strike up a conversation, "you never mentioned that she lived in the middle of a forest." Carefully stepping over some tree roots Kagome caught up to him as he lead her dutifully through the forest. He just kept walking and finally he spoke, "I hope you're keeping track of the path we are using to get there. You mustn't get lost on the way back." Kagome rolled her eyes, "sure I have. No problem there. I'm just worried about this lady you're bringing me to. Is she some sort of witch or something?" He glanced back at her, "some might put it that way." Kagome froze, "What?" Her voice was much less disbelieving than it was vexed, for she had heard of stranger things. The thing that truly annoyed her was the fact that her father was willingly letting her go to this person who was called a witch.

Ignoring her he stepped around a particularly large tree and just stood there until Kagome reached him. Following his gaze she was met with the sight of many, MANY stairs. Maybe even more than the shrine at home did. Groaning Kagome looked over to Mr. Higurashi, "she lives up there, huh? And I'm guessing this is where you leave me." He nodded and began to walk away. Annoyed, Kagome watched him leave and turned back to the many stairs. '_Gee, this makes me feel wonderful. My own father is acting as though he's sacrificing me to appease some angry god.' _

Climbing up the steps with surprising ease Kagome finally relented to the fact that maybe the practice she got from her own daily routine of stairs was finally coming to use. Walking to the shrine door she cautiously approached and taking off her shoes let herself into the open hallway (you know, like a hallway outside the house with a roof covering it and everything). Clearing her suddenly dry throat Kagome let her voice be heard, "I'm here. Whoever this wonderful tutor of mine is please come out. I have a feeling you can hear me." After a moment of silence and no new arrivals Kagome sighed; that hadn't worked. '_I suppose I'll have to look around a bit then.' _

Stepping into the nearest room Kagome looked around and left to search the next room. After a good half hour of searching Kagome finally found an old, pink haired woman sitting at a table sipping tea. She looked up at Kagome calmly and after a moment of silence spoke, "You're methods of searching for me weren't very effective, I see." Kagome glared at her, too exhausted to care she was probably annoying the woman that she would be stuck for for the next few weeks, if not months. "Tell me how else I was suppose to find you then, please." She managed to add the please at the end of her 'request' but it sounded stressed.

The woman took a sip of her tea and set it down, a slight click could be audibly be heard through the whole room. Standing up slowly Kagome was surprised to find the woman was much sorter than she was... MUCH shorter. Shaking off her thoughts Kagome watched as her new tutor tapped her ears, "you may not be able to see me, but sound can be detected if one listens hard enough. As you might have noticed I made noise when setting down my cup. By listening to such sounds you might have cut down your search considerably." She tapped her nose next, "If sound does not help you use your nose. Smells can help narrow down areas that a person or thing could be. If you had just stopped to notice the scent of tea you would not have had to search all those room around me and could have come to this room directly." She paused to make sure Kagome was listening and was pleased to see she had the young girl's full attention.

The new tutor then stomped her foot and vibrations ran through the wood hallway, "If using your ears and nose does not help then feel for vibrations. If I had stood up you might have been able to tell where I was. Or perhaps if I was walking around you would have felt me. Instead you barely paused in your search with the exception of the after the first few moments you were here." Kagome blinked at her as the old woman sat down once more. This time paying attention to her other senses other than sight Kagome could hear the small thumping sound and the slight vibrations of the woman's movement.

Frowning Kagome finally spoke once more as she herself sat down, "so it was a test. One I failed miserably." The woman smiled and set down her tea cup, "In some ways, yes. However you did impress me when you refused to give up, even when it seemed as though you would not find me." Kagome brightened up slightly, "I'm Kagome, as you probably already know. You are...?" The woman nodded, "Genki." Kagome smiled and pulled out her many books and waited for Genki to say something. Genki seemed to take the hint. "Let's begin. Math?"

40 minutes later proved to be ugly. It was true that after a very long explanation of one of the math problems Kagome finally understood it but she had a tendency to make mistakes. Genki looked over the sheet of paper once more and sighed, "you missed problems 3, 4 , and 7 Kagome. You made the same mistake again and switched the formula." Kagome sighed, "Okay." Genki looked up at the clock, "we still have twenty minutes before you are free to go. Let me write out another set of problems for you to do and then I will give you your homework." Kagome turned pale, "Um, Genki. I'm terribly sorry, but may I leave early? I have a... meeting with someone." Genki frowned, "certainly not, Kagome. Unless you have a good reason?"

Kagome turned pale, "I didn't know that I even was going to have tutoring today and I didn't have enough time to change the time we were suppose to meet." Genki raised an eyebrow, "Boyfriend?" Kagome blushed, "uh... no. Just this really kind guy I met a while ago. I was late to the last time he set up because of some unfortunate events. I don't want to be late again." Her lips began to tremble slightly but she didn't know why. She shouldn't be this worked up to see Kurama, right? "He... he might give up if I'm late this time... and I really REALLY don't want him to... I mean he's really nice..." Kagome sighed and gave up, she was too flustered and she made it sound like she was his girlfriend the way she was speaking.

Genki seeing her slight trembling, blinked. It had been a while since she had met anyone so worked up over someone else. Finally she sighed, "Fine. You do realize I'm going to add to your homework because of this, right?" Kagome looked up sharply and gasped, "Really? Awesome! Thank you Genki!" Genki nodded once then added, "Next time we will spend only half of our time of math. The other half we will work on gym activities. I was surprised to find that you lacked in gymnastics, so we will work on that next time." She paused she see Kagome's slightly horrified face and grinned, "All I require for you to do for todays homework on that matter is learn how to at least do a handstand. Something simple like that." Kagome smiled slightly relieved.

Sighing Genki handed the excited girl her homework before she tore off shouting a last thanks to her before disappearing from view.

Yusuke had tried to ignore the Toddler's annoying walkie talkie, he really had but he didn't think he could ignore that annoying beeping any longer. Picking it up, annoyed Yusuke glared at the toddler who looked out on the little screen. "What is it Toddler?" Koenma scowled at Yusuke, "Don't call me that Yusuke! I have very important news for you!" Yusuke rolled his eyes, "Don't you always, Toddler? Well, get on with it!" Koenma nodded and ignored the slight insult but instead shifting through a huge pile of papers to find the file he was looking for. When he found it he began speaking once more, "it appears the 'C' class demon you killed off in the last mission has caused some problems." Yusuke groaned, "We killed it off already! It took a long darn long time too! We even cleaned it up, although Kurama skipped out in that." Koenma shook his head, "It's not the actual demon that's causing problems Yusuke. It's the abilities the demon left behind."

Yusuke blinked, "What? That made no sense Toddler." Koenma rolled his eyes, "The demon blood that was left in the sea affected a school of fish in the sea, and therefor passed the teleportation abilities of the demon to the fish. I had a team of spirit employees take care of most of them, but three got away." Yusuke sighed, "why don't you just leave the fish alone then? Let them use their new abilities to suddenly appear on dry land and die. And since when did you have spirit employees? Isn't that the same thing as spirit detectives?" Koenma sighed, "Yusuke that isn't the point. If those fish are eaten then the demon's ability will transfer to the person eating it. I have evidence that those fish were caught- I even have one of the people who ate one of the fish caught already. I need you to keep an eye out for weird looking fish though- or people who might have eaten them."

Yusuke turned a slightly pale color, "what do mean by 'weird' Toddler?" Koenma shrugged, "I don't know. The person we found was glowing so I would assume the fish would be as well... although the glow isn't always noticeable. What's the matter Yusuke?" Yusuke stood there silently, his face devoid of any previous color, "Oh, shit."

Kagome ran to past her house, not bothering to change out of her school uniform or to drop off her books. This time however instead of running the whole way to the coffee shop as was her normal custom way Kagome paused to get on the bus, figuring it would take her there faster than if she had run. Paying quickly she found a seat and waited as patiently as possible, keeping a nervous eye on the setting slowly setting sun. Shaking her head slightly, Kagome tried not to think of how strangely she had reacted at Genki's. Kagome watched as people began to pile onto the bus at the next stop and was intrigued to find a familiar red head among the crowd of people. Waving wildly Kagome grinned over at Kurama, "Over here Kurama!" He blinked, obviously surprised himself to see her there but took her invitation. Unlike her he was out of his school uniform and in something much more comfortable: jeans and a t-shirt.

They were silent for the bus trip and when they finally reached their stop they both got off in similar silence as they walked the rest of the way to the coffee shop. "So, Kagome..." He said, his smooth voice filling in the previous silence, "may I ask why you are still wearing your school uniform?" Kagome groaned, "It's a long story, but to make to make it short I just didn't have enough time to." He smiled at her, "same reason for the text books then, hm?" Kagome nodded, "I guess if you don' mind I can tell you, but it might take a while." He nodded, "Go ahead." With that she explained how her past three days (starting with when she met him), leaving out the parts with demons.

He listened silently and kept his full attention on her story. The only time the story was stopped was when they ordered their coffee. After sitting down on their traditional spot on the bench outside Kagome once more resumed her story. "And so she left me with some homework and let me go but I didn't have time to change out of my school clothes... or drop off my books." Kurama grinned at her, "sounds like a nasty situation you're in. Could I perhaps help with your homework from your tutor? You never did mention her name, though." Kagome shrugged, "I somehow got the feeling that she wouldn't appreciate her name being told." Kagome paused and then realized what he had just offered. Spinning around in her seat Kagome looked up at him with big, doe like eyes, "Really? Really, really? You can do that?" He nodded, amused by how easily she was excited. "Of course. Here, let me see."

The next hour Kurama explained how to do the rest of her problems. Kagome was delighted when she got all the problems right on her homework- after a couple tries and lots of patience on Kurama's part of course. Stretching Kagome let out a long sigh of relief, "And here I was worried about being to finish my homework... oh. I forgot there's one more thing I have to do." Kurama blinked as Kagome instantly darkened from her previously cheerful mood, "can I help, perhaps?" He asked. Kagome sighed, "No. Not unless you can help me learn how to do a handstand." He blinked and an uncomfortable silence lingered around them. Kurama glanced down at her skirt quickly as she waited for his reply. Finally he spoke, "Ahh, yes." A mischievous smirk lit up on his face, "A handstand." Kagome blinked, "Huh?"

**A/N: Whew... done. I rushed through a little bit of it as some might have noticed but I think it turned out fine. There's poor unsuspecting Kagome. I didn't really want Kurama to be a pervert or anything but I guess I had a little bit of the Youko in him show up. An extra thanks to Gothic Lust for giving me some really great ideas (one of them that I'm using). Thank you! Please review and tell me what you think. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own either InuYasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. **

**A/N: I'm a couple days off from when I thought I would be able to update, huh? Sorry! I really need to learn not to procrastinate... haha. **

**After looking over this chapter I'm starting to think that maybe I should rate this story T instead of K+. What do you guys think? I'll probably rate it T if just for safety but if you guys are absolutely sure it should remain K+ the I'll leave it alone.**

**Once more my editing was rushed so I suspect there will be errors that I missed.**

**Someone read through my chapters and as they read kept telling me what I did wrong, such as spelling errors and... Ouch. o.O I seriously have to go back and fix those errors! There's some really major mistakes in there. I know this might sound rather strange but I don't know how to edit chapters that have already been posted. Do you have to replace them or is there an easier way? Okay, on with the chapter!**

Chapter 5: A Handstand

"Oh, shit." Yusuke muttered once more, staring out ahead of him blankly.

"Yusuke! I need you to keep an eye out for anybody who might have eaten the fish- or the fish themselves!" Koenma's voice snapped at him through the walkie talkie hanging loosely in his hand.

Yusuke blinked and snapped out of his previous daze. _'Oh, come on!'_ He though to himself, _'I had less of a reaction when I died or even when I found out about demons! I've fought more really strong demons than I can count and I'm still alive. Am I going to let one tiny fish defeat me? Heck no!'_ Shaking himself out of his thoughts Yusuke finally grasped his mind around his problem, "Hey, Toddler. I need to know what happens to the people who eat the fish."

To say Koenma was surprised would be an understatement. Yusuke rarely showed interest in his missions or tasks given to him by the Spirit World. Why would he start now?

"Uh... um, the uh..." Koenma fought his tongue to speak, still struck that Yusuke was showing interest in his job at last. Finally after a few minutes of stuttering incoherent mumbling and plenty of glares from Yusuke Koenma regained control over his voice. "Well, Yusuke that depends on your meaning." Yusuke glanced at him in confusion and Koenma hastily explained his meaning, "I mean whether you're talking about the abilities they would gain or what happens to them once they're caught."

"Oh." Yusuke muttered. Then pausing and looking as thoughtful as Yusuke ever got, answered. "Both."

"Well, I've already told you that they'll be able to teleport. We're unsure of any other effects but that doesn't mean there won't be more. The person we caught already just has a slight demonic aura and the ability to teleport... and glows. I will say though that her hair is growing faster than it was before."

Koenma paused to catch his breath and continued, "As for once they get caught..." Koenma trailed off doubtfully. "Well... that always depends but usually we give the person something to calm them down and put them in a room full of spirit specialists. They figure out what happened to the person, such as the effects of the fish. In the case of the person we already caught-" Koenma was stopped when Yusuke growled.

"You know, you've already given away the fact that the person you've caught is a girl! Use something less long and get on with it!" Yusuke glared at Koenma through the walkie talkie.

Koenma reluctantly nodded and continued once more, "Anyhow, in the case of the girl we then questioned her. At the moment we are keeping her in a room where she is sleeping until we are certain we won't need her again. She might be some help when you discover the other two. After that though we will send her and any others found into the demon world after erasing their memories and replacing them with new ones."

Yusuke's eyes widened, "What?!" Koenma glanced up at him, confused, "You're going to ERASE her memories? And then REPLACE them with new ones?"

Koenma frowned, "Yes. She can no longer live in the human world for she is now part demon. And in order to reduce the cruelness of the situation and make it easier on her we replace her memories. If she kept her old memories she would most likely die of misery."

Yusuke rolled his eyes, "Oh, yeah. SURE." Okay, that was rather excessive. But the answer was so obvious! Why didn't Koenma see it? "And why can't you just explain things to her and let her go off and live her previous life?"

Koenma actually hesitated before answering, "it's because she's a demon. Once more it'll be hard on her to have these new, weird abilities among humans suddenly so different from herself. She won't be used to her new abilities and might use them accidentally, causing a huge fuss. Or worse, she might use them to purposely hurt somebody."

Yusuke paused, Koenma was right in some aspects here... but it was so wrong. _'But some of those things can be solved...'_ He realized. "Koenma," He said, using the Toddler's real name in hopes of catching his attention, "maybe you could go meet her. Talk to her and stuff. Decide whether you want to trust her or not and if you decide you can tell her what's going on and let her train her new abilities. Once she's got them down she can go back home and live out her life, right? I did it."

"Maybe..." Koenma said thoughtfully to himself. "Yes, that may work. You have a point there, though: you managed to do it." For a second or two longer he sat there at his desk and though about it. "Yes, I think I will. I hear she was cute anyways..." Yusuke rolled his eyes as Koenma continued, "I'm going to call Kurama and Kuwabara now. And Hiei, if he picks up. Call me if you find someone."

Yusuke's eye's widened, as Koenma turned off the connection, "Wait! Toddler!" Too late. "Ahh, darn it!" Yusuke glanced down at the walkie talkie focusing mainly on it's many buttons with odd symbols on them. This wouldn't be so hard if he hadn't forgotten the Toddler's 'number'. It consisted of something like twelve different things you had to press before you could call him. Scowling at the walkie talkie once more he sat down and began racking his brain in an attempt to remember the number.

No luck. Darn.

--SCENE BREAK--

This was utterly embarrassing. Completely humiliating. Oh, gosh, if only she could sink into the ground or simply disappear... yes disappearing sounded good right now. She had never felt so humiliated in her life. No question about it. There was no way she'd ever do this again. Nope.

'_Unfortunately,'_ her mind supplied helpfully, _'that is impossible. You'll be forced to do this again with Genki.' _How awful. _'In fact, I should get out of this extremely embarrassing situation right away.' _She had half a mind to attempt it but her oh, so great mind told her it was otherwise a good idea. _ 'That is impossible. You're stuck, and you know it.' _How she hated her conscience sometimes. It was right, though. _'Damn.'_

Here she was, standing wobbly on her hands, about ready to fall any moment. The only thing keeping her up (and her awfully flimsy, skimpy, short, and about to be burned as soon as she got home skirt) was the two firm hands wrapped around her upper thighs.

"You're doing great Kagome. Try to bring your hands out a little further: it'll help your balance." She attempted to follow his instructions and failed. "That's fine, Kagome. Don't worry, you're getting the hang of it..."

Kagome groaned and wavered, only to be held up by Kurama's firm hold. "Why do I get the feeling you're lying to me?" She mumbled sarcastically.

Kurama said nothing, knowing he would only get in trouble if he did and instead thought to himself, _'Okay, she caught me. But what's a little white lie every once in a while?' _ He listened to the space around him, half expecting a reply.

"Oooh! Your silence says everything- EEK!" She wobbled once more. This time no hold on her legs would save her from the rough fall –and the surely more embarrassing position-- that was sure to come. Quickly Kurama released her thighs to wrap one arm around her knees and another to grab her shoulder.

Keeping her eyes closed for a few seconds Kagome slowly gained the confidence to open her eyes and blushed a VERY dark red. Oh, god. She had totally prepared for the wrong thing. She had been expecting bruises, bleeding scrapes and a very sore butt but none of this happened. Well maybe a bruised ego.

She had expected her skirt to show all those willing to look at her long tanned legs (not to mention her red pokkadotted panties) but never, NEVER had she also suspected her shirt of such a betrayal as now. Her favorite pink bra was now also being shown off to the world. _'All the gods up there must be laughing their heads off right now.' _She thought glumly staring up at the shirt bunched up at her shoulders. How dare it fall from it's previous safe spot tucked into her skirt? (Ahem- to clarify her she tucked her shirt into her skirt so it wouldn't fall down when she was upside down.)

She slowly raised her head higher until she could see Kurama's widened green eyes that stared down at her. He gained his dignity first (for how in the world could SHE?). He let her shoulder go and once more she was in her horrifying handstand position. He just held onto her ankles and gazed down at her thoughtfully.

"This," He said humor lacing his voice, "is a rather interesting problem."

"Sure," she drawled angrily, "interesting to YOU. You better not be peeping looks down at me Kurama!" His head quickly snapped up and he looked away.

"No, of course not." He mumbled. He heard her 'humph' and could imagine her trying to cross her arms at that moment. Fortunately for him (or maybe not XD) he was soon distracted by a beeping sound coming from his belt where the walkie talkie that connected him with the spirit world, informing him Koenma was trying to get a hold of him.

"I have to get that." He informed her quickly as he chanced a glance down at her. She was rather skillfully (considering her previous success) balancing on one hand while the other fumbled with her shirt in an attempt to keep it up.

She flashed a grin up at him, "Then I believe both of us agree that it's time I get down?" He nodded mutely at her and her grin widened. "Yes! Finally! Uh, Kurama?"

"Hm?" He asked absently.

She blinked once and her grin turned apologetic, "Um, how do I get down?"

--SCENE BREAK--

Yusuke glared at the walkie talkie once more before throwing it down on his bed and leaning back against the wall. There was no way he wanted to spend his whole evening trying to remember Koenma's stupidly impossible number. How else was he suppose to get to Koenma unless Botan showed up, though?

"Y'suke! 'Ey!" He heard his drunk mother call to him, "Yur friend K'waba or whate'er his name 's came to see ya!"

Yusuke's eyes widened, Kuwabara! Of course! The idiot knew just when to show up...

--SCENE BREAK--

"Okay, Kagome. We've already tried to get you to do a summer salt to get down. Maybe try again...?" Kurama asked wearily. He had suggested many things already but she had rejected all of them saying something along the lines of breaking her head open. What was worse was that he had no doubt that she was correct, her coordination abilities seemed rather bad.

"No." She said firmly shaking her head. "I already told you the last time I tried to did a summer salt..."

Kurama sighed, "the safest idea would be to lower yourself onto your head and then bend your knees... but you rejected that too." He tried to ignore the constant beeping that was coming from his belt as he tried to reason with her. She shook her head once more, not even bothering to voice her opinion anymore. "I'll be helping you down, Kagome. You wouldn't be doing it alone. And it's not that hard..." Once more she shook her head.

Sighing for the thousandth time that day Kurama tried again, "Kagome, at this rate I'm just going to have to let you go and see what happens. You're still awfully red, and I doubt it's from embarrassment anymore. All the blood is traveling to your head... it isn't safe to stay upside down for long periods of time. It's already been ten minutes since we tried to find ways to get you down."

Kagome felt tempted to shake her head but she knew he was right. She was just being extremely stubborn and hardheaded like a child right now. Anyways every time she shook her head her ears began to ring. Finally she spoke, "Fine. But I don't know if i can do this..."

Kurama smiled at her, "It's okay. Remember I'm helping you." Slowly Kagome tried to lower herself onto her head and then stopped midway through. This was going to hurt her head... a lot. She was going to crash and her skull was going to crack open and there would be an ambulance and lots of noise and more blood.

She heard a sigh from above her and she felt Kurama grab her waist and pick her up. Squealing Kagome felt him lift her and quickly turn her around before placing her on her feet once more. Blinking rapidly Kagome stood for a moment, hoping to overcome the dizziness overwhelming her. At last she was able to look up at Kurama's worried face. "Why didn't you do that right away? It would have made things a whole lot easier!" She whined.

Shrugging he smiled at her, " I knew it would make you dizzy. Excuse me for a moment please... I've got to answer this." Kagome nodded and watched as he walked away before answering just out of her hearing range.

She sat down, relieved. How good it felt to be upright once more. _'Wait a moment...' _She thought after a second, _'who in the world has a cell phone that just keeps ringing until you pick it up? I mean that was ten minutes, one would think I would just go to leaving a message. Was it a cell phone? I don't think it was...'_ Shaking her head she decided to let it go. It probably wasn't anything important...

--SCENEBREAK--

"Kurama! What took you so long? I understand why Yusuke didn't pick up at first but..." Koenma trailed off when Kurama glared at him. "Uh... did I come in at a bad time?" He asked nervously.

Kurama sighed and rubbed the bridge of him nose in an attempt to decrease the intensity of his headache. "I'm not quite sure yet. Anyhow, what's the problem?"

Koenma relaxed, "Well yes... remember the demon you killed yesterday?"

--BACK TO KAGOME--

She sighed, it had been almost fifteen minutes since Kurama had gone to answer his... what ever it was that was beeping. It wasn't very long and she knew she was just being impatient but she was BORED. She paced another semi-circle around the bench and finally decided to go inside to put the long empty mugs inside a bin of dirty dishes to be washed and went back outside. Finally she pulled out her books and looked over her homework again in attempt to find anything wrong about them. However, she already knew that they were all correct because Kurama had already checked everything.

She checked over the homework Genki had given her once more before turning it over on the back, prepared to doodle on it. What she found there shocked her, though. It seemed Genki had just written on the back of some scratch paper. On this side of the paper was a list of medical herbs and medicines they were used in. Squinting to read the tiny script Kagome held it up the moonlight and found with shock that some of the letters were a dark brown instead of black. _'It's a secret message...'_ she realized. _'A really easy one...'_

A secret message all the same. Quickly writing down all the brown letters she frowned. It was just a bunch of random letters. Never mind the easy part then. Glancing at it again she soon discovered that the letter on the left of the brown letter seemed to make much more sense and copied them down.

L,O,O,K,  That seemed to be the first word: Look. Maybe that was the answer of how to ! _'It is...'_ Her mind whispered to her. Before she could continue however she heard Kurama return.

Glancing up at him she was surprised to find a frustrated look on his face and instantly put the puzzle down. "What's the matter?" She asked, worried. "Something bad come up?"

He glanced at her and shook his head, "It's nothing important. I was just informed of an unfortunate event which will cause me to have to work more in the near future. Don't worry, though." He smiled at her, "It isn't that bad. I was just a little upset. I was hoping for a fairly uneventful day tomorrow."

She grinned back at him, "Understood. Eventful days normally end up with a really bad headache."

He chuckled, "Yes, exactly." He paused to look down at her many footprints surrounding the bench- evidence that she had been pacing and smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry I had you wait so long..."

"Ah!" Her eyes widened and shook her head quickly, "It was no problem! Not at all! I was just being impatient, you didn't take that long." She bit her lip, that didn't seem to come out quite right. Quickly scuffing out the footprints with her foot Kagome sat back down.

Kurama soon joined her, his hands clasped together resting in his lap. Glancing over at her he quirked an eyebrow at her, "You sure?"

Kagome nodded, "Yep." Glancing over at him she smiled and decided to bring up the matter about what the device he had was, "By the way, I don't believe that was a cell phone."

His eyes widened a fraction and he froze, not moving or even breathing. Finally he reached into his pocket and drew out what looked similar to a walkie talkie. Not quite though, it had many weird symbols on it and had a rather large screen. Waiting for her to finish her examination Kurama explained, "It's odd, I know. It's my communication to my work. I keep telling my boss to get cell phones."

Kagome blinked, "Where do you work? It must be a weird place..."

Kurama laughed, "It is. I'm afraid you wouldn't recognize my work."

"Try me." She challenged him. "There probably no chance I won't believe you. I've seen some really odd jobs... heck, I worked at one. Kind of..." She grinned at him as he gave her a disbelieving look.

"Okay... I'll give you a general gist to what sort of stuff I do." Kurama said. "I'm a... detective. Sort of. More like a body guard or police officer. Once more it's not the best of words to describe what I do." Kurama looked up at her, expecting her to laugh at him or call him crazy.

"Hm. Okay, that is pretty a pretty odd job for a high schooler. I doubt they pay you, huh? Your job actually sounds almost as crazy as my old job. As close as any will, anyhow." Kagome said thoughtfully. Kurama stared at her and she smiled at him, "I know. You're probably thinking something along the lines of, 'you have no idea. If you only knew the truth.' That sort of thing."

Kurama nodded very slowly, "You're right. In every way. I suspect if you knew all the details of my job you would no longer think your previous job was more crazy than mine, though."

She let her lips twitch in the briefest of smiles and continued speaking, "Who knows? Maybe you're right." Looking over at him she locked eyes with him, "I suppose it's only fair to tell you an idea of what my own job was. I was... a treasure hunter. Of sorts."

Kurama smirked, "I did that, too."

"And just by the way you put it," Kagome said dryly, "I know you were a thief." He just smiled and finally she gave up trying to getting anything else from him. Glancing down at her watch Kagome gasped and jumped to her feet, "Oh no! I'm late again!"

Kurama laughed and also stood up, "Should I walk you home, then? Or will we run again?"

Kagome stared over at him, "You'll come?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Kurama asked, "I've already told you it's dangerous for a lady to walk around at night alone." Kurama gave her a slightly puzzled look and Kagome blushed a light pink.

"Uh, you see it's because you left so quickly last time..." She mumbled, twiddling her thumbs together.

Kurama nodded in understanding, "That was because," He said, "your welcoming party didn't seem to appreciate my presence."

Kagome's eyes widened, "My father?" He nodded and Kagome bit her lip. That reminded her how her father had been so upset about her meeting with Kurama. _'He'll know Kurama's coming.'_ She realized, aghast. Taking a deep breath to calm herself she shook herself out of her thoughts. "I understand my father wouldn't exactly welcome you with open arms, but... this time could you stay a bit longer?"

Kurama blinked, surprised. "Uh..."

Kagome's eyes widened, realizing how wrong that seemed to come out. Quickly she rushed to explain herself, "It's just if you haven't had dinner then I'm sure my mother would love to have you over. You see she really likes guests and even my dad can't argue with her! But if you've had dinner then that's fine! You don't have to come! It's just, uhh..." Oh, god, she'd just made it worse. How typical how of her. She peeked over at Kurama and waited to see what he would do.

Kurama grinned at her, "Breath, Kagome." Kagome, suddenly realizing she had in fact been holding her breath let it go in one big sigh as Kurama continued, "I'd love to come over to dinner if that's fine with your family."

Kagome beamed at him, relieved he had agreed. For a moment there she was certain she was in for a extremely embarrassing refusal. "Then, perhaps we should get going! If we don't hurry Mom will begin preparing the wrong proportions for dinner! I don't think running will be necessary. I think there's still one late bus that will be leaving soon-" She paused to check her watch, "in 7 minutes. We better take that or we'll be late, though."

Agreeing with her Kurama walked beside her, heading towards the bus stop. They arrived just as the bus was about to leave and were grudgingly let in.

"People always come running up, expecting for us to stop for 'em even though they're the ones late..." The bus driver mumbled as they paid the small fee needed to ride.

Silence consumed the space around them as they waited to arrive to the shrine. When they reached their stop and got off (having to walk a bit before reaching the shrine) and stared up at the shrine steps. "Cursed stairs..." Kurama heard her mutter as she began the climb. He paused before following her up the steps, wary of the fact Kagome's father could be waiting for them at the top.

"I always," Kagome told Kurama between small huffs, "hated these stairs. Why do there have to be so many steps?"

Kurama grinned over at her, "do you really want me to answer that?"

Kagome groaned, "No. Please don't." Kurama chuckled and they continued the climb in relative silence. When they reached the top they weren't at all surprised to find her father waiting for them by the god tree. He was glaring at Kurama rather nastily and even Kagome wondered for a moment if it really was okay to have Kurama over for dinner.

"What," Mr. Higurashi asked slowly, never taking his eyes off Kurama, "is he doing here? Again."

Kagome squared her shoulders, prepared to argue for Kurama's sake, determined that once they got inside where her mother was they would be fine. Not even Mr. Higurashi was able to stand up again her mother when she was determined. "He's here for dinner."

"No." Mr. Higurashi said firmly.

Kagome blinked. That was direct. "And why not? He hasn't eaten dinner yet! And I'm sure Mom wouldn't mind him over! In fact she'd be delighted!"

Her father's eyes hardened, "And I would not be. I say no."

"There's no way you can say that without a real reason! You don't even know him yet!" Kagome said, exasperated.

Kurama, who had just been watching at the side winced slightly. Mr. Higurashi smirked at that, "Thieves are not allowed in this shrine. I will not have my daughter dating one."

Kagome frowned. This meant that he knew a bit of Kurama's past and had a reason for not allowing Kurama in for dinner. Well, she could get around this one fairly easily. "Oh, I'm soo sorry. I didn't realize that was a rule. Then are you going to kick me out too, Daddy?"

Kurama resisted the urge to whistle. That was pretty good evading; she pretty much was saying she was breaking that rule so Mr. Higurashi would have to take down the claim unless risking his daughter leaving so now there was no reason he shouldn't join dinner. She also made it so the point that having a previous thief as a boyfriend didn't make a difference because she was one too... without specifically saying she was or wasn't dating him. '_Real smooth.'_ He thought appreciatively to himself. _'Well,'_ He admitted to himself, '_there is the one major flaw that there's a good possibility of her being grounded...'_

Kagome seemed to notice her own danger because she quickly said everything noble about thieves and giving the most understanding reasons as to why someone would want to be a thief. He never thought one could think of so many things good about a thief in mere seconds. One thing specifically caught his attention however.

"-anyways someone has to keep the nobles on their toes. Imagine what those primpy asses up there would do if they didn't have to lock up all their precious treasures and money. They would probably go mad without something to hover around like an overprotective mother bird does an egg." Kagome glanced up at her father who turned to look away from her to where Kurama was waiting at the side. The sight that met her shocked her to no end. Kurama was holding his stomach with one hand while the other muffled his snickering. He always seemed so composed it seemed almost stunning to see him in such a state as now. What seemed worse was the fact that her father was now glaring even harder at Kurama. _'What the hell is going on here?'_ She thought, thoroughly confused by now. Had she done something wrong?

"Kurama?" She asked while cautiously approaching him. "Are you all right?"

Glancing up he nodded, tears streaming down his face, his eyes crinkled slightly in amusement. Kagome took this as an immediate 'no'.

"Get a hold of yourself! Take a deep breath!" Kagome said while rubbing the tears off his face. She knew he was just extremely amused over something -though she had yet to figure out what- but such loss of self control seriously worried her. He just laughed harder. It took her a few long minutes before she calmed Kurama down enough to be able to look both of them in the faces without falling into another fit of laughter. She wondered briefly whether he was just being hysterical or not and instantly came to the conclusion there was no way Kurama would be hysterical.

"I'm sorry, Kagome. I found some of what you said rather funny, considering the circumstances. You would have to know some background information to explain to you why it was so, however." Kurama said wiping the last tears off his face.

Kagome nodded, slightly hesitant to except such an answer. Leading Kurama past her protesting father into the house, Kagome immediately found her mother in the kitchen. She was chopping up some onions and Kagome's eyes instantly began to water.

"Mom!" She greeted, cheerfully dragging Kurama in behind her. "We have a guest for dinner. I'm sorry to be telling you so late but..." Kagome trailed off when Mrs. Higurashi instantly dropped the knife onto the cutting board and turned around so sharply Kagome feared she might fall over.

Her eyes lit up when she saw Kurama and clapped her hands together, "Is this that young man from last night, Kagome? I knew he was handsome!" Kagome groaned as her mother practically squealed, "No worries, I'll have dinner done soon! You to go do whatever lovebirds do these days..." Waving them out of the kitchen Mrs. Higurashi resumed dinner with a little hum.

Kagome and Kurama shared glances as the door to the kitchen was slammed shut in their faces. Kurama shook his head when she opened her mouth to apologize to him. Understanding lit up in both of their eyes as they glanced once more to the shut door.

"I suppose we can go to my room." Kagome suggested, "It's just up those stairs over there." She pointed over to a set of stairs not far from where they were standing.

As they were heading to them, however they ran into Souta. He stared at Kurama with wide eyes before instantly recovering, "You must be Kagome's new boyfriend, Kurama. You're cool, want to be friends? I can tell you exactly what Kagome's scared of or-" Kagome covered Souta's mouth and glared at him.

"What was that you were saying, you brat?" Kagome asked, her eyes warning Souta to say nothing more.

Souta winced and shook his head, "Uh, nothing! Nothing at all!" With that he scampered off.

Kagome sighed and turned to see Kurama smiling after Souta before turning back to Kagome, "Boyfriend, huh?" Kagome groaned. What a day this was turning out to be.

**A/N: Okay, there's chapter 5. As you all will have noticed I tried to separate the dialog to make it easier to read, but I'm not sure how it turned out. In some ways I just shortened the paragraphs. Once more I owe Gothic Lust for the suggestion! Please review and tell me what you think!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Thank you for all of you who waited so patiently for me to update. I'm afraid I had a couple major sessions of writers block, homework overload, and then times when I was too lazy to work on it during holiday breaks. That, and the fact that I often completed the chapter then threw it out. I'll apologize now for how very long I took me, and assure every one of you that I really haven't abandoned this fic. This chapter will be short, and maybe a little pathetic because I finally gave up on this chapter and decided you guys deserved to finally get something. Even if it was bad. With that said, enjoy! **

Chapter 7: Confetti

"Follow me."

Kurama followed after Kagome obediently upstairs to the hallway. Kagome glanced over at him, blushing several times for the rest of the short time to her room. Why her? What ever had she done to diserve this? Not focusing on where she was walking, she to tried unsuccessfully to ignore Kurama's unforgettably strong presence just inches from her.

A worried voice took her out of her trance. "Kagome? This is the end of the hallway."

Glancing up at Kurama and then at her hand placed on the wall (about where the doorknob on her door would have been) and blushed a deep red. This hadn't been the first time she'd done this before: often when she was coming out of the shower, when she was half asleep, she would walk all the way to the end of the hallway before realizing she intended to go somewhere else. But in front of Kurama -or anyone else- was extremely embarrassing.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled, turning back. Time to backtrack. "My room is right this way."

He nodded, and to her great relief didn't laugh. Coming to the correct room with a sign on the outside with big bold letters saying: KAGOME'S ROOM, she stopped. For some reason, a sense of foreboding filled me. Something was telling her not to go into that room. Peaking over at Kurama's confused expression, she sighed and opened the door a crack. When nothing jumped out to attack them, she opened it wider.

Then gasped.

The backpack with all her books fell to the floor. Kurama stood behind her, his expression once more worried. Before he could say anything, however...

"SOOOUTAAAAAA! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY ROOM?!"

Downstairs, they heard Souta laugh. Kurama gently moved her to the side to see what she was talking about. For one long second he just stared then, with a snap, he shut the door. Silence.

"I'm going to kill that brat." Kagome muttered, but didn't bother to move. She was too shocked. How could Souta pull a practical joke as horrible as this when Kurama was over?

The room was covered in hot pink confetti buried in it. It was the unforgettable sort of pink that burned into your memory forever and would always haunt you, nothing like the tolerable magenta uniform that Kurama had to deal with. It was The stuff was piled to shoulder height

"I would assist you with killing your brother, but I'm already in trouble with your father." Kurama said lightly. Kagome groaned, shaking her head.

"How about you just help me get this stuff out of here?" Kagome suggested, dejected. She opened the door once more and more confetti fell into the hallway. Both of them winced at the awful color, sighing in uunison "Wonderful." Kagome muttered sarcastically.

With that they got to work. Garbage bags piled up higher and higher in the hall way.

An hour later, both of them now braving to wade into the now knee high confetti, Mrs. Higurashi came upstairs.

NNeitherof them heard her come uupstairsuntil they heard her gasp. "Oh, dear... What did Souta do this time?" She asked wearily stepping around the many confetti filled bags scattered out in the hallway. As she was walking she glared at two figures by the door which neither Kagome or Kurama could see from their position. "Ah, here he is... Souta. And Grandfather. What are you both doing here? I thought I told you to come and tell Kagome and Kurama dinner was ready."

"Hehehe... Um. Bye, Mom!" Souta and Grandfather's figure darted down the stairs.

Kagome frowned after them, she hadn't heard either of them nor felt their presence. Was she getting shabby from her few dealings with demons recently? Recalling the demon she had slain just two days ago she threw that option out. "SOUTA! You brat! Get back here so I can beat the living-" Mrs. Higurashi gave her a pointed look and she snapped her jaw shut. "Just another prank..." She paused then asked her mother, "Did you get to father?"

Mrs. Higurashi smiled brightly over at her. "Of course, dear. It was nothing. Now, this is no way for the two of you to be spending your time together!"

Kurama, who had stayed back until then finally spoke up. "It's alright, Mrs. Higurashi. It needs to be done. We'll be right down."

Mrs. Higurashi examined him again with a large grin on her face, "Of course. Now, Kagome! Look at that beautiful, red hair! What shampoo do you use?" She asked, patting his head carefully. Kagome sighed, but waited for Kurama's answer.

"It's my own custom made shampoo." Kurama answered calmly.

Kagome gaped for a moment as her mother admired his hair.

"Custommade, hm? What's in it?" Mrs. Higurashi asked. "It's so shiny and soft." She began to pet his hair.

Kagome groaned as Kurama shifted, slightly uncomfortable. It was InuYasha and his ears all over again.

"Mother, please leave him alone..." Kagome said with a sigh. Slowly she struggled her way over to her mother and Kurama, through the confetti. Kurama held his hand out to help her over. Mrs. Higurashi grinned and backed away from the two of them.

"Well, then. Dinner is getting cold..."

Everyone who was still in the room trudged downstairs to the dinner table. Souta, Grandfather, and Mr. Higurashi were there, waiting for them already. Mr. Higurashi glared at Kurama as soon as they walked in. Kurama politely ignored him as he was showed his seat.

Kagome went right over to Souta as he cowered away from her. She lunged for his throat just as he was about to escape. "YOU. LITTLE. BRAT." She growled at him, "I. SHOULD. KILL. YOU. RIGHT. NOW."

"Sorry, sis! I just thought it would be funny!" He said desperately.

Kagome scowled at him then let him go, "You're doing the rest of the labor work getting my room clean."

Kurama blinked surprised, watching the exchange between the siblings. Leaning over to Mrs. Higurashi he asked softly, "Are they always like that?"

Mrs. Higurashi smiled, "You'll get used to it, I'm sure. After all.. we'll all be spending much more time together! Isn't that right?"

Kurama blushed. She really was being quite insistent "If that's fine with Kagome." He replied back, finally.

Kagome was sitting down next to Kurama just as he finished his little side conversation. "Fine with what?" She asked.

Mrs. Higurashi smiled over at her, "About Kurama coming over more often! And no more doing chores for you two for the rest of tonight!"

Blinking rapidly, she glanced up at Kurama. "Well, this place is rather crazy. I, however wouldn't mind if you came back!" She smiled brightly at him, and despite himself he found himself smiling back.

Mr. Higurashi, who sat on the side, opened his mouth to protest then but quickly closed it again when he saw his wife's furious glare. Instead of refusing as he had planned, Mr. Higurashi spoke instead, "It'll be fine for a while, I suppose." He sounded much like a sulking child.

Kagome grinned over at her father, "Thank you!" She chirped. Then, everyone together, "Let's eat!"

Everyone swallowed their first bite, slowly. Different expressions ranged from everyone's faces. Finally, Kurama spoke.

"It's cold." He turned to Souta and Kagome's Grandfather. "How long were you eavesdropping again?"

Mrs. Higurashi, Souta, and Grandfather all exchanged glances. Mr. Higurashi looked as confused as Kurama and Kagome, but that didn't last long. All at once, they realized. "You were all on this." They said in unison Kagome sighed.

"When will my love life ever be private in this family?" She asked to the gods above, ignoring the rest of the people in the room. Never did she see the pleasantly surprised expression on Kurama's face, or the excited face of the rest of the family -with the exception of Mr. Higurashi who looked sullen.

Souta spoke smugly then, "See! I told you he was her boyfriend!" That was when Kagome realized what she said. Her hand flew to her mouth and a blush once more took over the usual color of her face.

Oh, no... why me?! She moaned, this time in her head. Was she ever going to get a break?

The answer was obvious enough to her: Nope. Never.

**That's it for this chapter, everybody! I know: short. I didn't really mean it to turn out quite this way, but.. (-shrugs-) I hope you guys liked it! And Happy New Year! No Yusuke in this, but he'll be in the next chapter! Please review! (I know that wasn't my best, but I was getting really frustrated with that chapter. So I finally gave up and stuck with this. Hope you guys don't mind!) **


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